Of my Incarceration in the Jug
to Jack Ketch, and I vow that I would have burst their very walls and disported myself openly in London Town, had I gotten the liberty of my limbs. For that again I owed Timothy a grudge, and I was not the man to forget a black debt, not if I had to wait a twelvemonth. But I will admit that my plight took a dark colour, with me in chains, and never a soul, not even Polly, permitted in my cell. It was plain that they would hold me if they could. But, Lord, ’tis before obstacles that a man’s heart rises, and if I was to be daunted by the raw circumstances of my peril, I should ha’ given up the road, in a manner of tongue, ere ever I took to it. So with that I considered very deeply, taking counsel in my hold. I had many friends outside Newgate, if I could but exchange messages; and presently I thought upon a plan, which was no sooner conceived than forthwith I started to put it into execution. And first I must deliberate on my behaviour, for upon that all hung. What does I do then but in the first few days after my sentence break out into paroxysms of fury whenever
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